'We had to take this risk'
Whole family overcomes fears to vote
Say Iraqis ready to emerge from disaster
AMEER MOHSEN
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
BAGHDAD - I cannot describe the feeling in our house today. We just returned from the first real election any of us can remember. The whole family is here. It is a party. It is a like a dream.
Two days ago, I made a very difficult decision. I told my wife and children, "No, we cannot vote. It is too dangerous." But my daughters insisted, "Papa, you must. We beg you."
They were right. Looking into the faces of my children, I knew we had to take this risk.
But this morning, my doubts returned. There were bombs at 8 (a.m.) and more bombs around 9 (a.m.). Then, mortar attacks. The whole neighbourhood (as-Saidiya, in southwest Baghdad) felt it. Our windows were shaking. We were shaking.
We all sat in the house, maybe one hour, just looking at each other, wondering what we should do. And then finally, I said to everyone, "I'm going outside to take a look."
When I reached the corner, I could not believe my eyes. There were hundreds of people, everyone moving toward the voting centre.
Waves and waves of people. Old men, old women, handicapped people. People dressed in their most elegant clothes. They were Shia and Kurdi and yes, some Sunnis as well. All together, moving together. They were happy.
I ran back to the house and told everyone, "We can do it. Everyone is going."
We gathered our friends and neighbours and moved as one, five or six families walking together.
The distance to the school was about one kilometre. Nobody was allowed to drive. Everyone was on foot. We were still very nervous. But then we saw the Iraqi National Guard soldiers everywhere along the route.
The Iraqi soldiers were using loudspeakers. They said, "The voting centres are safe. Everything is secure. Have no fear. We will protect you."
I remember in the time of Saddam, we were also expected to vote. And we were always afraid of these men, the Iraqi police, on such days. But today, they were a part of us.
At one point, we saw the Iraqi guards drive by with an old man in the car. He was too frail to walk, so they were carrying him to the poll.
My wife brought an Iraqi flag for the walk. She carried it on her shoulders and the soldiers cheered and saluted. Then we put it on our 4-year-old son. He was so proud. People pointed, and said, "He is our future. He is the new Iraq."
When we got to the voting centre, everything was open. It all happened very quickly. I voted. My family voted.
I think the truth is many Iraqis are ignorant of the rules. There are so many candidates, so many lists. People only recognize maybe the first 10 of these lists.
But they came anyway. I think Iraqis came to affirm their rights, even if they don't have all the information they need. They want to show each other, they want to show the Arab world, they want to show the outside world, that we are not an ignorant people. That we are ready to rise from this disaster.
I am still afraid those devils in the Arab world outside Iraq, they will want to doubt the legitimacy. I don't know how many people voted in the places with the most troubles, in Falluja, or Ramadi or Samara.
But when we walked home, we began to see something very unexpected.
Saidiya is a mixed neighbourhood, one of the places of the insurgents in Baghdad. But we could see that many of the Sunni Arabs on our streets started to change their minds this afternoon.
More and more of the Sunni people in Saidiya started coming out of their houses. They decided to vote, to be a part of this day.
We returned to the house. We switched on the television to see how many people died today. So far, the reports are of eight or nine suicide bombs, maybe 17 people killed.
It is a horrible thing to say, but we looked at each other and we were relieved. This number makes this just a normal day. Every day, we have this many bombs. Even my children expected worse. But we have not seen it. Not today. Not yet.
They we went to my father-in-law. We spent the whole night before trying to convince him to vote, but he said "No." He was against everything after the war. He was against the Americans, against the interim government, against these elections.
But when he saw our faces and listened to our stories, even he changed his mind.
"I am going to vote," he announced. In our family, he was the last one. In our family, I am proud to say, the turnout was 100 per cent.
